The Missing Year
by SmiLego
Summary: What happened when you are so hangover you can't do simple math anymore?


Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick.

"One more minute then goodbye twenty eleven!"

Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick.

"Ten!"

Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick.

"Five... Four... Three... Two... One..."

Tick.

The world froze for a second then started back again.

"Happy fucking new year!" Chloe screamed to the sky then threw her empty beer bottle against the nearest rusted car frame. The bottle bumped into it with a loud chink and fell near her dozen other sisters.

"Happy new... *burp*... year!" Rachel belched into Chloe's face, a half empty beer in her hand.

"Wow, okay, down girl! That's definitely your last beer for the night!" Chloe went to grab Rachel's beer but Rachel moved her hand back, out of reach.

"But this one's not empty yet... I can...*burp*.. I... I finish this one and...*burp*... It's the new year! I'm... *burp*... allowed to celebrate for fuck's sake!"

"Okay, party girl, then I'm bringing you back to Rose's!"

"I don't wanna! I'm good... Really! Look I can... I can stand up and walk the line! Look! Look!"

Rachel finished her beer in one go then uncrossed her legs, put her hand on the ground, tried to push with her arms but then failed half way into the motion, ending up on her back. She rolled slowly on the side, gradually moved to an all fours position then proceeded to vomit what looked like a month's worth of food on the ground and finished crashing head first into it.

"Yep definitely the last one."

* * *

Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick.

"Bullet With Butterfly Wings" by The Smashing Pumpkins finished playing on the alarm clock radio and was followed by "Red Solo Cup" by Toby Keith. Chloe opened one eye, closed it and groaned.

"The fuck? Too early for this bullshit!" Probably out of shame, the alarm clock promptly decided to stop what it was doing and took a flying trip to the other side of the room, smashing against the closet door and landed on a pile of dirty clothes.

"You Are My Sunshine" by Johnny Clash started playing on Chloe's phone.

"What the hell?" Chloe grabbed her phone and unlocked it. It was a new message from Rachel. "How... When did she get to my phone?"

"U up?" Read Rachel's message.

"Stop playing with my phone u bitch!" Chloe replied.

Rachel immediately answered with a simple emoji with its tongue sticking out.

"No emoji!" Answered Chloe.

"2 whale in 1h? I pay" read Rachel's follow-up.

"U R on!" Replied Chloe that wasn't about to pass up a free meal.

Rachel replied with just an emoji making a happy face.

"Stop it!" Replied Chloe that had enough of all this emoji nonsense.

Chloe locked her phone, dropped it on her lap and stood still for a second. Her eyes had picked up something on the screen that didn't seem right. She picked the phone back up and looked at it again.

"January first, twenty thirteen? She even played with the calendar, the little weasel!" She fixed the calendar, locked her phone again and dropped it on her bed. "Now for the best part of the morning!" She reached below her bed, opened a little metallic box and took out a small plastic bag full of weed.

* * *

Sufficiently high to face the day, Chloe went slowly down the stairs and stopped on the last step. No sign of her stepdad, and with Joyce probably already at the diner, she was free to move around the house. Chloe continued towards the kitchen. "One snack for the road, in case Mum decided to limit me to one piece of bacon or something."

The fridge was full of leftovers. Some salmon on tiny round bread, a pot-roast, a half-eaten chocolate cake, a few bananas in a box marked "For David only". "Looks like they had quite a party last night!" Closing the fridge door, Chloe's eyes got caught by the new calendar. "So the firefighters won over the postal guys this year." Something seemed wrong though. She focused on the picture of a big red fire truck then froze. "Is it a joke?" The year on the calendar was twenty thirteen. "Way to go Mum, to pick the one calendar that has a typo on it! I'm hella sure Step Ass didn't even notice this one." With a piece of cake lodged in her mouth and a banana in her hand, Chloe walked to her truck, jumped on it, put the screwdriver into the ignition and started the radio.

"-ing with fire by The Runaways, I hope you loved it!"

"Fuck! I'm missing all the good songs today!"

"And for the ones who are waking up with a hangover, in case you forgot: Happy New Year!"

"Yeah, yeah, Happy New Year to you too..."

"...and don't forget you should start twenty thirteen with a cold fresh pint of..."

"Wait what? I'm not dreaming right, he said twenty thirteen?"

Chloe looked around. No signs of William. She pinched herself. "Ouch! No, not dreaming... What the fucking hell is happening to everyone? Is it fuck with Chloe day again?" Chloe moved the truck on the road and set course for the diner. Rachel might have an answer to this insanity.

Chloe arrived at the two whales diner, parked over the handicapped spot and another parking place, got out of the truck, slammed the door and walked briskly to the diner.

"The Devil comes down to Georgia" was playing on the jukebox.

"Hey what's this crap playing on the jukebox?"

Despite the insult, the jukebox continued playing its song.

"Never mind I actually like this one."

Chloe spotted Rachel at her usual booth. "Hey Rach!"

Rachel slowly looked up from her drink and briefly waved at her friend.

Chloe walked to the booth, grabbed the newspaper that was lying on the neighboring table and sat opposite to Rachel.

"Damn, you look hella terrible Rach. You really didn't sound that hangover in your texts."

"What are you talking about? I'm at the top of my game..." Rachel said half asleep.

"And what is that you're drinking?" Rachel's drink looked like it was coming fresh from the sewage, a mix of green and yellow with chunks of stuff in it.

"Joyce made it for me, it's supposed to cure me..."

"Well keep it away from me, feels like I'm gonna start melting if it touches me or something!"

Chloe looked at the newspaper's front page. "Not again!" she threw it on the table. "Look at this shit!"

Rachel set aside her drink and took a look at the paper for a few seconds. "I see nothing wrong here."

"What?"

"Well there's the usual 'new year resolution that never ends up happening' announcement from the mayor. I don't see a problem here..."

"Look at the date!"

"January first? You forgot the date Chloe?"

"The year, Rach! The year!"

"Well new year new number Chloe..."

"Rachel you're definitely out of it. Look at it again. Yesterday was December thirty first, twenty eleven and now we are in twenty thirteen? So first you changed the date on my phone and now the newspaper, the calendar on my fridge and even the guy on the radio, they all made the same mistake..."

"But Chloe, we are in twenty thirteen, yesterday was twenty twelve...You sure you don't want a sip of my cocktail? It seems you might need it after all."

"Chloe! Can you please stop stealing paying customers' papers?" Joyce stood in front of their booth, a coffee pot in hand.

"They are gone Mum! It's not like they're gonna come back just for their precious paper."

Joyce set an empty glass on the table and stared at Chloe for several seconds. "Well at least you don't look as hungover as poor Rachel over here. But tell me you still got here on the bus."

"I still got here on the bus," Chloe mechanically repeated. Rachel smirked, her head lowered on her drink. Chloe seized the opportunity while her mother was still close by.

"Mum, can you tell Rachel what date we are on?"

"Why? Chloe you should know that..."

"Humor me, please."

"My! We are January first of the year twenty thirteen of course!"

"See what I told... Wait. What? No. No. No. We are in twenty twelve!"

"Chloe you should really go back to school if you can't do simple math anymore..."

"Now I don't have time for your jokes anymore. I have customers to attend to." Joyce filled the glass with coffee and went on her round.

"Chloe, please, take it easy." Rachel tried to reassure her. "We were in twenty twelve all year last year. Now it's time for twenty thirteen. Get used to it."

"What? But... Oh fuck everything, never mind!" Chloe started to sip on her coffee. She had enough of this town, it drove her best friend away, it stole her dad and now even stole a full year of her life. She couldn't wait to get enough money to be able to get the hell out of here.

* * *

Author's notes:

Victoria is a sophomore in May 2010 in Before the Storm and is supposed to be in the same class as Chloe. Meaning, even with a 5 year high school schedule, they should all be gone from Blackwell Academy at the end of the 2012-2013 school year and Max should have met none of the Chloe's old classmates since she started school back in Arcadia Bay in September 2013.

This is one way to explain it.


End file.
